A THOUGHT-PROVOKING anti-torture campaign by Amnesty International has been marred by confusion over the rights to the photos, which feature Photoshopped images of well-known faces.

The human rights organisation’s Stop Torture campaign shows the battered and bruised faces of rock star Iggy Pop, the Dalai Lama and Chanel creative director Karl Lagerfeld, all headed with the slogan, “Torture a man and he will tell you anything”.

Iggy Pop’s image is accompanied by the quote, “The future of rock’n’roll is Justin Bieber” and the Dalai Lama’s states, “A man who does not have a Rolex watch at 50 years old has failed in his life”. Fashion designer Lagerfeld says, “The height of elegance is a Hawaiian shirt and thongs”.

The photos aim to highlight the inhumanity and ineffectiveness of torture as a means of obtaining information. The campaign is in French and was launched by the Belgian-French branch of Amnesty International.

But it appears Amnesty International failed to seek permission from Iggy Pop and the Dalai Lama to use their faces in the campaign and attribute quotes to them.

Amnesty have Photoshopped images from press photo agencies, which they paid for.

News.com.au also paid for the use of the original Getty Images photographs, shown below.

See the comparison:

“A man who does not have a Rolex watch at 50 years old has failed in his life.” Photo: Amnesty International

A Getty Images photograph of the Dalai Lama in The Hague, The Netherlands, on May 10, 2014. Photo: Bas Czerwinski.

And Iggy’s Pop’s image:

‘The future of rock’n’roll is Justin Bieber’. Photo: Amnesty International

A posed studio portrait of Iggy Pop, taken in May 2001 in Williamsburg, NYC in the United States. Photo: Steven Dewall/Redferns.

The head of Amnesty International’s Belgian-French branch, Philippe Hensmans, told news.com.au there was a misunderstanding over permission to use the images, which were bought from a press photo agency.

“The quid pro quo was that we felt there was global approval from the people concerned, and that’s the reason why we never had discussions with the people in the pictures.”

Mr Hensmans said he met with the Dalai Lama’s representatives in Brussels on Wednesday to correct the misunderstanding. “That’s a matter of clarification that will hopefully be resolved,” he said.

“Iggy Pop has been supporting Amnesty for many years now. It’s not a question of he doesn’t support Amnesty, it’s a question of he wasn’t aware [of his image being used].”

However while the situation is feverishly trying to be resolved, ad guru Clive Burcham, of Australian creative agency TCO says the mishap is “foolish, naive and disrespectful”.

‘The height of elegance is a Hawaiian shirt and thongs’. Photo: Amnesty International.Source:Supplied

“It’s lucky that it’s Amnesty International, because they’re easier to forgive than most big-brand clients,” he said.

“Quite often people make mistakes and don’t follow the proper processes. It happens everyday, and as long as they learn from the experience then everyone should move on quite quickly. I’m sure it will be OK.”

The photos are still widely available online. The image of Iggy Pop was posted on Amnesty International Belgiam’s Facebook page on Wednesday and has been shared over 23,000 times.

“We thought it was a quirky but un-maudlin way to attract attention to a tragic reality that often happens in secret,” Mr Hensmans told The Guardian.

“Governments that use torture ... claim these techniques give them precious information, but history has shown that tortured people are usually willing to say anything at all to make the pain stop,” he said.

“We don’t want people to get confused and not see the main message, about the debate on torture,” he told news.com.au.

Amnesty International Australia would not comment on the Belgian campaign photos.

But news.com.au understands there are plans to launch an Australian version of the Stop Torture campaign to feature well-known Australian faces.